Gingo Fighting Royale
|genre=Fighting |modes=Single-player, multiplayer |ratings= |media= |requirements= |input= |cabinet= |arcade system= |CPU= |sound= |display= }}Gingo Fighting Royale is a crossover fighting video game developed by Gingo Interactive and published by Universal Interactive for GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Microsoft Windows. The first installment in the Fighting Royale series, it was first released in North America on November 19, 2002, in Europe on December 6, 2002, and in Japan on March 27, 2003. The game is a crossover between several Gingo Animation properties, including Gabriel Garza, Hatty, Niz Chicoloco, Chrysocolla, Jenny Zoom, Planetokio, Paint World, and Fiox. It is similar to the first Super Smash Bros. game, in that its main objective is to use each character's unique skills and the stage's hazards to inflict damage, recover health, and ultimately knock opponents off the stage. After completion of Fiox, development on Gingo Fighting Royale began in 2000 under the working title of Gingo Fighters and was extensive. The Gingo Interactive team sought to differentiate the game from other Gingo-developed games, deeming their new entry into the franchise required a different direction. The development team re-purposed the fighting mechanics of Super Smash Bros. and nuanced character development for the game. Gingo Fighting Royale received generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised its multiplayer mode, graphics, and its interpretation of the Gingo brand as a video game. Criticism was mostly centered its lack of content and some aspects of gameplay, such as bugs and glitches, as well as its similarity to Super Smash Bros.. Gingo Fighting Royale was a commercial success, with recorded sales of over three million copies worldwide, and spawned a series of sequels, starting with Fighting Royale 2 in 2008. Gameplay Gingo Fighting Royale is a crossover fighting game bringing together eleven playable characters from several Gingo franchises, such as Gingo mascot Gabriel Garza and Hatty Weasel, in one epic battle on an arena that plays very similar to the Super Smash Bros. series. Up to four players (human or CPU controlled) can control a character and fight on a multi-tiered 2D stage. Players may use various items that appear randomly to get the fighting edge over their opponent. Additionally, the stage may use set elements in order to take out other players. For example, in the Sinking Spring stage, players can open a door from Gabriel's house. Each playable character has their own special move set that uses different elements from their respective franchises. Each has an up, down, side, and neutral attack. Most characters have a projectile attack. Vio is the only character who has a disabling attack. The game features a traditional single-player arcade mode, in which players must defeat several randomly-selected opponents, followed by a character-specific rival battle and, ultimately, a battle against the game's main antagonist and final boss, the Collector. A "Training Mode" is also available in which players can manipulate the environment and experiment against computer opponents without the restrictions of a standard match. Multiplayer modes include time-based matches, where players compete to achieve the most kills within a time limit; stock-based matches, where players attempt to be the last one standing; and kill-limit matches, where players compete to be the first to reach a certain number of kills. The game also features a single-player challenge mode, in which players attempt to complete specific objectives. Completing matches and fulfilling objectives with a character will gain them experience points; leveling up a character will unlock bonuses such as character bios and a special video. Characters Playable characters *Gabriel Garza *Hatty Weasel *Niz Chicoloco *Chrysocolla Reed *Jenny Zoom *Iken Unlockable *Vio *Allo Frog *Fiox *Sam Reed *Deon Splatt Non-playable characters *The Collector *Fighting Doppelgangers Stages *Sinking Spring *Fozzville *Klemos *Nitropolis *Grand City *Planetokio Unlockable *Vio's Fortress *Paletton *Garden Valley *Icy Island *Blannetkio Plot Coming soon! Voice cast English *Debi Derryberry as Gabriel Garza *Rob Paulsen as Hatty Weasel *Dee Bradley Baker as Niz Chicoloco *Grey DeLisle as Chrysocolla and Sam Reed *Ashley Johnson as Jenny Zoom *Jason Marsden as Iken *Jonathan Lipnicki as Deon Splatt *Corey Burton as Fiox *Jim Cummings as Vio, Allo Frog, The Collector, Announcer Japanese *Megumi Hayashibara as Gabriel Garza *Kōichi Yamadera as Hatty Weasel *Sachi Matsumoto as Niz Chicoloco *Mika Kanai as Chrysocolla Reed *Sanae Kobayashi as Sam Reed, Fiox *Jun Mizusawa as Jenny Zoom *Yū Sugimoto as Iken *Kazuhiro Shindō as Deon Splatt *Jurota Kosugi as Vio *Tomohisa Aso as Allo Frog *Daiki Nakamura as The Collector Development Development on Gingo Fighting Royale began in 2000 under the codename Gingo Fighters, while Gingo's in-house game development team was producing Gabriel Garza: Vio's Return and Chrysocolla: Battle for Nitropolis after finishing Fiox. During development, Gingo wanted to steer every franchise they own in a different direction by giving the game engine a complete overhaul. The developers decided to add their characters from each different franchise into a fighting stage and battle each other, so that the game offered a better experience of the Gingo properties. The internal development name for "Fighting Royale" was simply "Gingo", as referenced by the executable file of the game. Gingo Fighting Royale, along with Chrysocolla: Battle for Nitropolis, was originally intended to be designed by Mark Cerny, who had designed all Gingo Interactive games thus far, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment under its four-year deal with Gingo Interactive to develop games exclusivity for Sony-produced consoles. However, Sony and Gingo's deal expired after the release of Fiox, leading to Gingo's then sister company Universal Interactive Studios to take full control of the game's publication, as well as obtaining the rights to Fiox. On September 21, 2000, Universal Interactive and Konami announced that they had entered an agreement that would enable Konami to publish several Gingo games for next-generation game systems, with Universal Interactive handling the production of the games. Konami revealed that the Xbox version of the game would be titled Gingo X. Michael Wildshill, CEO of Gingo and Universal Feature Animation, oversaw the game's development. During Fighting Royale's development, Universal Studios, DreamWorks and Gingo Animation played important roles in bringing every Gingo franchise into a 3D environment. All character voices were supplied by the actual cast from those franchises, and Gingo writers wrote the entire story for the game, including dialogue. Jim Wilson, the CEO of Universal Interactive, considered it a blessing to have the opportunity of working with voice cast, along with the writers, whom Wilson called "the best there is". The developers explained why particular characters were not playable and others were not available as playable characters upon release. Initially, Wildshill wanted some of his Universal-only characters such as Ama from Ama and the Mysterious Crystal to appear the game, but she was cut due to time constraints. Animator Bob Jaques originally requested the inclusion of Universal cartoon character Woody Woodpecker to Wildshill, but the game was too far into development. Pre-release and unused content Regional differences Release Gingo Fighting Royale was first shown at E3 2002. During the showing, Gingo promised unlockable characters, stages, bonus levels, and power-ups. Before the game's release, the official website included weekly updates, including screenshots and character profiles. Gingo followed this trend with the sequels, in which there were daily updates by the game's developer Geo G.. IGN reported that Universal advertised the game in between showings of The Gabriel Garza Movie across theaters in the United States. Originally scheduled for a worldwide release in October 2002, the game was delayed and released on November 19, 2002 to coincide with the DVD and VHS release of The Gabriel Garza Movie (where it was advertised) in North America, December 6, 2002 in Europe, and March 27, 2003 in Japan. A Game Boy Advance port was planned to be released alongside the console versions, but was scrapped due to it not being powerful enough to support the game. Critical reception The game (despite being resold as a Greatest Hits, Platinum Hits and Player's Choice title) met with very mixed to positive reviews from critics. Jack DeVries of IGN gave the game a rating of 5.8 (Mediocre) and said "it was great, but something was wrong here", and also said and felt "the levels are bizarre and strange", criticizing its gameplay and similarity to the Super Smash Bros. games. The game was also criticized for the lack of content and some aspects of gameplay, such as bugs and glitches, it was praised for its visuals however. The game received a Metacritic score of 74/100. In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of one seven, two eights, and one nine for a total of 32 out of 40. Legacy Gallery Cover arts Gingo Fighting Royale (2002) PS2 Cover Art NTSC.jpg|PS2 NTSC cover art Gingo Fighting Royale (2002) PS2 Cover Art GH.jpg|PS2 Greatest Hits cover art Gingo Fighting Royale (2002) GameCube Cover Art NTSC.jpg|GameCube NTSC cover art Gingo Fighting Royale (2002) Xbox Cover Art NTSC.jpg|Xbox NTSC cover art Gingo_Fighting_Royale_(2002)_Xbox_PH_Cover_Art_NTSC.png|Xbox Platinum Hits cover art Gingo_Fighting_Royale_(2002)_PS2_EBGames_Cover_Art_NTSC.png Logos Gingo Fighting Royale (2002) logo.png|Logo Artwork Coming soon! Screenshots Fighting Royale Character Select Screen.png|Character selection screen Wallpapers Coming soon! Miscellaneous G94E01-1.png|GameCube demo disc appearance Trivia Coming soon! References Category:Video games Category:2002 Category:2000s Category:Fighting Royale Category:Fighting Royale video games Category:Crossovers Category:Gingo Interactive Category:Universal Interactive Category:PlayStation 2 games Category:GameCube games Category:Xbox games Category:Windows games